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Ambassador. The word echoed queerly inside her mind. Upon arriving on the strange ship, the Captain greeted her kindly enough but she noticed the ermine's initial shock. Hospitality was granted to her and Oliver, but they seldom left their rooms onboard the Drach'n Fury.

A crash startled the female salamander and her eyes quickly opened. Her brother was on the dropship floor, cursing as he crawled back onto the seats. Dim starlight glowed through the windows as they passed yet another system. Was she asleep?

"I should have expected to be shipped off like a crate of produce," cursed Oliver, lying back down on the seats.

Olivia couldn't help but to agree. They were on the Fury for a few days before they met with the Admiral, and then just two more days after that they were told that they'd be escorted back to the core worlds; her, Oliver and the rest of the surviving crew of the Bridging Albatross.

The dropships weren't built for comfort, or long-range trips so they were scheduled to meet with another ship somewhere. Olivia and her crew weren't told very much on the details of their exchange but she knew that another warship was to carry them the rest of the way back to the recent core world of the UDAS military, Canidera.

Gazing out into the stars, a forming gas giant was seen near the closest star. She knew the vibrant clouds were swirling around the center of gravity at incredible speeds, but from this distance they looked stationary. Dull lightning flashed from within those clouds, angry at their hopeless attempt to escape the gravity well.

The flight to the rendezvous was uncomfortable enough without her feeling like she was a prisoner. Escorts were placed on her and the survivors of Albatross, including military personnel in the ships themselves and several Immunities.

Originally Olivia believed she'd have more time to plan for the initial contact with the furred ones. Not to say that she wasn't relieved when they were rescued after being stuck on the rough ships they used to escape the Albatross.

Back on Fury, she was also escorted wherever she went; but she did not fail to notice that she was not the only one escorted. All of the surviving members of Albatross were escorted, and others who were different uniforms than the Fury crew.

When she was escorted to the admiral, there were two pine martens in his office talking with him. They each had an unarmed guard standing nearby.

"Ambassador," greeted the very young arctic fox, who sat behind a wooden desk. His expression appeared that he never wore a smile on his muzzle before. Olivia completely overlooked him, but was surprised to see that he wore the Admiral's uniform. "Welcome aboard Drach'n Fury. I am told by your captain that you were heading to the core worlds to establish diplomatic relations."

"I don't speak for my people," replied Olivia. From her escort's reaction, she knew that they weren't used to her accent. But she thought that they had the funny accent. The universal language was established over a thousand years ago and it was one of the few things the Velmarians kept from before the Banished Wars. "I'm no ambassador."

"Forgive me," replied the young fox. We nodded at the two pine martens and they left the room with their guards. "I'm Admiral Yukiomaru Alexander. I'm commander of this vessel. The UDAS hasn't seen a Velmarian in person for over a hundred years. Naturally, we're curious why one shows up now. If you'd desire to inform me how you came to leave your planet?"

"Is this an interrogation?" asked Olivia bluntly. Even with the hospitality offered her, she was suspicious of their motives.

Yukiomaru brought his paws together and lowered his eyes slightly before glancing back into her eyes. "Not at all," he answered. "You're free to answer or not to answer; either way you will be treated as hospitable to the best of our ability."

"Is your government in the practice of admitting children to command warships?" Olivia asked, not sure if she was being mocked.

"I understand your suspicions," Yukiomaru said calmly, presenting her a fat folder. "My advisors are debating with each other if I should give you this information or not. This is my personal profile and details of this mission."

Olivia took the folder and scanned through it but found the words spelled strange. The written languages have changed over the centuries but the text was not illegible. She noticed words like "classified" and "prodigy" over the documents. The fox's profile was covered with black ink, and hardly anything was visible.

She's never seen official documents and only read a few books in her lifetime, but it all seemed authentic. Included in the files was a page with information regarding the Velmarians and several of their piracy acts. Names of "warlords" were listed including her name, Theta.

The UDAS knew more about them then she could have ever guessed. How long has her race been out of contact? What if this young Admiral discovered who she is?

Without another word she gave the Admiral back the folder. He accepted it without taking his eyes off of her and betraying no expression.

After an awkward moment of silence, Olivia said, "You know a lot more about our lives than we do of yours. You know that life is not easy on that planet, escaping it is even more difficult."

"Is it your goal to make a life for yourself elsewhere?" he asked. Olivia disliked that he made no expression. There was no way to read his what he might be thinking.

"My priority was to escape," answered Olivia. She didn't tell him her motives, but she wasn't too sure what her motives were yet either.

"Being here under escort probably doesn't feel much like you've escaped anything then, would I be correct?"

Olivia was cautious and thought on the question for a moment. She must have remained silent longer than she knew because Yukiomaru asked, "What do you wish for you and your brother? You can stay here or I can give you an escort back to the core worlds."

With hesitation she consented to being escorted back to Canidera with her brother and Lucien's crew. She never intended for her presence to be known by the UDAS so soon though, and now it all was out of her control.

Oliver was sleeping on the seats again, still obviously very uncomfortable lying on them. There was no sign of the clouds of the gas giant, or the star that it would soon be orbiting. Space itself bent and warped outside the window, where one of the reflective Immunity escorts were flying.

"Princess Theta," the pilots voice came over the intercom. "We've made contact with the cruiser Emergence Assault. They are expecting you. We will rendezvous in one hour."

Instead of "Ambassador" many of them now called her "Princess Theta" instead. No doubt the Admiral informed his crew to address her accurately but she disliked the title "princess" as well.

Before the hour passed, she woke up Oliver and they watched through the windows as another massive ship was travelling toward them. It roughly resembled a feathered raptor head with a short beak, just as Fury roughly represented the long dead dragons.

Docking to the ship didn't take long, and soon Olivia was being escorted off the dropship. The hangar deck was large and illuminated by a natural light hardly reflecting off the dull blue hull. Her waiting party was obviously told and trained on how to greet her without gawking or offending her.

The room she was placed in was more basic than her room on the Fury, which she actually found it more pleasant. Long after they were left to themselves in the room, Lucien visited Olivia and her brother.

"How are you two doing?" she asked when she shut the door behind her.

"Best as we can be, considering the circumstances," answered Oliver, standing near the room's sink. He had a damp cloth in his claws, wiping his scaly skin clean.

"I've been in contact with my superiors," Lucien said. "We're planning for your escape but we can't move until we reach the system. We can't risk being caught off guard by another alien vessel."

"Escape is irrelevant," Olivia remarked. She stopped preparing some raw meat that she found supplied to her room and refocused her attention on the cheetah. "They know we're here. We can't keep our presence secret anymore."

"Secrecy doesn't matter anymore," said Lucien. "My superiors wants all of us debriefed on our contact with the aliens. She has a new target now."